Kate Zambreno

A three-dimensional ballerina projected onto a fourteen-foot screen begins 2002's "Amelia," choreographed by Montreal virtuoso Édouard Lock. The animated dancer floats away. Flash to the live inspiration. She is magnificent, wearing a see-through black mesh leotard that reveals rippling, Amazonian thighs and a Barbie-doll face. In this initial duet, a couple fights furiously en pointe, an interplay of rapid-fire movements set to jewelry-box music, the suit-wearing man winding the cyborg princess around like a doll on steroids. Later she drags it up in a pinstriped suit, miming the two male dancer's moves, as they thrash her about stage. This intensely rigorous ballet by the French-Canadian company known for mixing video with live performance as well as using rock music ("Amelia" features live musicians and a vocalist performing an original score by David Lang, with Lou Reed lyrics), deals with exploring and stretching the limits of the human body. Featuring nine dancers in both solos and duets, the ballerinas, like their animated counterpoints, have a mechanic and almost masculine physicality--Lock has said that "Amelia" was inspired by observing the theatricality of transvestites.

La La La Human Steps performs November 21-22 at 8pm at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 East Randolph, (773)772-5463. $15-$45.

(2003-11-19)

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